


Just a Few Months to Lose

by MagitekUnit05953234



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: M/M, Mentioned Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, Mild Blood, Possibly Unrequited Love, hanahaki, mild body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-02
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-07-23 23:32:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16169036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MagitekUnit05953234/pseuds/MagitekUnit05953234
Summary: When Noctis began to cough up yellow rose petals, everyone assumed he was yearning for his childhood sweetheart trapped behind enemy lines.





	Just a Few Months to Lose

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt "roses/thorns" from Tumblr user raneam-o1's gothic prompt list.

When Noctis began to cough up yellow rose petals, everyone assumed he was yearning for his childhood sweetheart trapped behind enemy lines.

Noctis knew better.

It was almost funny to watch the political chaos. The Crown was in a panic, working to both hide Noctis’s affliction and to cure it. To bring Lady Lunafreya out of Tenebrae before the proposed wedding in 756 would likely require too many concessions for Lucis to survive. It would be the end of the war, with the scales tipped to the wrong side. It would be the end of Lucis.

No one wanted that, but no one wanted Noctis to die either. There was only one option, in the end.

“I'm not getting them removed,” Noctis swallowed back the tickle in his throat, though he was certain Ignis noticed the momentary difficulty. Ignis had been hyper-focused on every cough, every stutter, every gasp since he first found Noctis choking on flowers on his bathroom floor.

“You may not have a choice,” Ignis’s voice was quiet, with enough solemnity to make Noctis’s skin crawl.

“That's not fair!” Noctis does cough now and the flowers in his lungs feel like they’re drowning him. “It’s my life!”

“Your life isn't just yours. You have a duty—”

“That’s bull,” Noct spits out a petal, crushing it in his fist. “So I get the damn surgery. Then what? What is your plan for the marriage? I lose my memory, the only memories I’ve got of — of Luna. Then I know her even less! I'll have to marry someone I've never met, instead of someone I met ten years ago. What kind of plan is that? You really gonna make me do that? This whole marriage is stupid anyway, you gonna make it worse?”

That should have been the first clue.

Noctis went under the knife one week after he began coughing up thorns along with rose petals. The day before the surgery, Noctis pulled an entire blossom out of his throat, yellow by nature and red with Noctis’s blood.

He begged not to be forced into surgery, but his pleas fell on deaf ears. He likely barely remembered those months he spent in Tenebrae anyway. He could recover from losing those. It would be easy. Wouldn’t it?

When Noctis awakens to his father and friends at his side, he is more coherent than he ever is when waking up normally, unblurred by painkillers or sleep aids. Lucian magic burns off medication and heals wounds remarkably quickly. Little blessings to make up for the monumental cost.

“How do you feel, son?” Regis has Noctis’s right hand clasped in both of his own. The Ring glints on the king’s finger, a dull red glow.

“Fine,” Noctis croaks. His face screws up a little, the same way it does when he eats something he doesn't like, and he clears his throat. “Thanks for uh… thanks for being here.”

“Of course,” Regis smiles.

Noctis's gaze sweeps across the room, lighting on Ignis and Gladio in turn, lingering a moment. When he reaches Prompto, who was given special clearance to get into the Citadel just for today, Noctis barely gives him a second.

“H- hey buddy,” Prompto ventures.

Noct blinks. “Sorry, uh. You a new ‘Glaive?”

Prompto’s eyes widen. His face reddens, then crumples.

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on Twitter [@compromisedunit](https://mobile.twitter.com/compromisedunit)!


End file.
